Sheriff’s Office Releases Deputy After Felony Charges

Life can be a truly unpredictable thing that throws curve balls at you. There are times that are tough and situations that arise that one cannot plan for and when these things happen, you have to deal with them to the best of your ability. Such is the case for the Troup County Sheriff’s Office this week as they made the decision to release one of their deputies after he was arrested on charges. Sheriff James Woodruff spoke to all media outlets to inform them of the situation as early as possible. “It was brought to my attention yesterday morning that Lakee Snell, which is our deputy, had an allegation, a report filed against him by a girlfriend that said he had threatened her. Immediately, it’s my practice to call the GBI in because I certainly don’t want my office to do an investigation on one of our own when it’s criminal in nature. We do it all the time through the internal affairs division.

So we did call for a GBI, he came down, he began his investigation [by] interviewing witnesses, he interviewed Deputy Snail. After the interview, he placed him under arrest for stalking and simple assault, both under the family violence act. Immediately following that, we terminated Deputy Snail from his position here at the Sheriff’s Office. He was booked into custody and transferred to another facility because he had to, just like anyone else, stay in jail for 72 hours, which is called a cooling off period, and we knew that he could not do that here. He had been a deputy for the Sheriff’s Office since July of 2015. This occurred in southern Troup County and this accord over a two day span, April 29 and April 30. She filed the report on the 30.” There had been some incidents prior to this, but none that had ended in arrest.

The Sheriff’s Office quickly and rightfully so handled this situation in the best, most efficient, and responsible manner possible. Sheriff Woodruff also stated that it is their duty to uphold the men and women of his office, himself included, to the same standards that they hold the rest of the citizens of Troup County.